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Part 1 of the Brazil Elections Events Series

  • Hermione Greenhalgh

Yesterday was the first event of two on the 2018 Brazil elections organised by Canning House and King’s College London. The first round of the elections on 7th October produced surprising results; Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) emerged as the clear winner - only a few percentage points shy of an absolute majority. He will go head-to-head with the PT candidate, Fernando Haddad, in the run-off round on 28th October.

Yesterday was the first event of two on the 2018 Brazil elections organised by Canning House and King’s College London. The first round of the elections on 7th October produced surprising results; Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) emerged as the clear winner - only a few percentage points shy of an absolute majority. He will go head-to-head with the PT candidate, Fernando Haddad, in the run-off round on 28th October.

The audience heard from Dr Fiona Macaulay, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Bradford, Professor Timothy Power, Professor of Latin American Politics and University Lecturer in Brazilian Studies at the University of Oxford, and Matias Spektor, FGV-SP and columnist. Cristina Cortes, CEO of Canning House, welcomed the audience and speakers. Professor Anthony Pereira, Director of the King’s Brazil Institute, chaired the event.

Fiona Macaulay spoke about how this election has been game-changing in terms of its mobilisation of various social groups. Her discussion focused principally on the mobilisation of police corporations and women voters.

Timothy Power shed light on the contextual factors that have contributed to the “Bolsonaro effect”; identifying political fragmentation and polarisation, voter fatigue and the backdrop of the brutal recession as providing favourable conditions for the rise of Jair Bolsonaro.

Matias Spektor’s discussion turned to the future, examining what both candidates could mean for Brazilian democracy. He highlighted not only the difficulty of galvanising political will to tackle endemic problems such as corruption and lack of rule of law, but also the institutional obstacles that stagnate reform.

Join us on Wednesday 7th November for the second event, which will analyse the final results of the Brazil elections. Register here.

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